


all the dean's horses and all of his men

by noirshitsuji



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alice in Wonderland Characters as Sentimonsters, Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, Gen, Historical Miraculous Wielder, Lewis Carroll as a Miraculous Wielder, Peacock Miraculous, Sentimonster (Miraculous Ladybug)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:55:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29533710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirshitsuji/pseuds/noirshitsuji
Summary: –should be grateful fate didn’t leave anything up to them.(Or, a Miraculous spin on the events related to the 27th of June, 1863.)Written for a request for theMiraculous Writer's Guildby AlexSeanchai:a Miraculous wielder (or two or five, this could work with Ladynoir or Rena Rouge or Fu-and-Marianne or Hawkmoth or everybody whose identities Hawkmoth learned in "Miracle Queen" or somebody from the Order of the Guardians or any of the historical wielders canonically name-checked—please don't touch the ones where Astruc based the character on a deity from a real-world religion though) and the story of some Miraculous lore they learned the hard way.
Relationships: Alice Liddell & Caterpillar & Cheshire Cat & March Hare, Henry Liddell & Alice Liddell, Lewis Carroll & Alice Liddell, Lewis Carroll & Duusu, Lewis Carroll & Henry Liddell
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11
Collections: Miraculous Writer's Guild Blog Requests





	all the dean's horses and all of his men

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexSeanchai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/gifts).



The sky outside is overcast, clouds threatening more than rain – thunder, lightning, the anger of a thousand devils and the downturned eyes of just as many angels.

“Charles,” Henry says, voice low and raspy, “what happened to my daughter?” 

Charles doesn’t answer. He is locked in place in front of the window, has been for the past few hours now: ever since he sat down, tired from the search all over the college grounds and then the town itself, the ten, twelve, thirteen rounds of walking all around they’d done together. His boots are muddy. It has not rained yet today.

He raises his hand and lets it rest against the window.

“Charles,” Henry says, _and there they are, the devils;_ outside, none of the statues are looking up. “What did Alice do?”

The first raindrop splatters against the glass.

* * *

Charles has been conjuring up these creatures for her for years, he thinks when they find Alice in a small crater in a wood ten miles off of Oxford two days later, and he’s never thought what would happen if he gave them their items. 

She, apparently, has.

(“I have grown, mister Dodgson,” she told him, all pre-adolescent self-importance informed by perfectly reasonable observation of the passage of time. “And I know these creatures. They are, after all, nothing but manifestations of my own emotions. Please let me manage them on my own.”

One, two, three–she got hold of them apiece over time afterwards, first the rabbit, then the caterpillar, then the cat. Anticipation (that could be talked into fear), calm (a wise one, one unsuited to her years, one that could easily turn to indifference), curiosity and adventure ( _danger_ , his mind should have screeched but hadn’t).

A thousand devils thundering in his ears, all of his angels turned away–)

“She breathes, sir,” the physician that has been constantly with them for the past two days says, and Henry’s body sags downwards towards his daughter but he holds back, careful not to cage her.

Charles feels something tug at his pant. He looks down to see the cat looking up to him. He has never seen it smile like that before; it is as harsh as a streetlight despite its obvious feebleness.

“What did it,” the cat rasps out, weak from the weaning strength of the girl who sustained it, “was that it was only us, you know. None of us could embody what she was feeling, so she thought she might–”

Charles slams his foot down on the cat’s head. “Duusu,” he says, “spread my feathers.”

A bracelet, a handkerchief, an old watch all release their amoks, and Charles watches the white plumes fly upward, taken up by the wind. 

And then the sky opens above them, and Alice coughs.

(He gives the brooches – both of them, the one that had damned Alice and the one that he’d never shown to her, to a student of his the following week, tells him he must take them far, far away.

Alice tries to ask him about it at their first dinner again together six months later, when the clouds have parted and he’s stopped drowning in formulae for the first time in days, but she must see something in his eyes because she clamps up immediately after she starts. Henry’s eyes feel like a weight on his shoulder, the weight of all the devils and all the money the Dean had paid to keep them quiet, to keep anybody from learning anything about this.

Charles drinks his wine, starts a topic about college politics he knows he and Henry will never agree on, and watches the fire crackle in his eyes.)

**Author's Note:**

> There are, apparently, various speculations as to what happened to cause the rift between Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family. I hesitate to include a link because of the, ah, nature of some of the allegations, but the Wikipedia page on him will tell you enough. A miraculous explanation is not among the contestants, but I thought that a situation in which Lewis Carroll _somehow_ came by Nooroo and Duusu and used the latter to tell Alice stories via sentimonsters (the creatures in Wonderland) but didn't know that letting them have their items gives them free will & then they all ran away with her would be... _interesting_. It was inspired by [Elle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady3ellewrites/pseuds/Lady3ellewrites)'s comment on [one of my other fics](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26146501/chapters/63613891) where she compared Duusu to the Caterpillar, so shout-out to her as well!
> 
> Tell me what you think of this take! And do find me on [Tumblr](https://noirshitsuji.tumblr.com/) as well.


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